Current approaches to counting photons in a microwave field are either incapable of measuring small numbers of photons or disrupt the microwave field by either total destruction thereof during the measurement process or decimation of its photon distribution.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a method and apparatus for counting photons in a microwave field without destroying the microwave field or disrupting the underlying photon distribution in the microwave field.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a method and apparatus for counting photons in a dilute, single-mode coherent microwave field.